new orleans ♔ some people they call me monster | some people they call me saint

[romanticidal]

♬ Opera Singer - Cake

WHO || Rafael, Buffy, Spike, Des, Jack, Thomas, Myri, Finnick, Elena, Gar, Kat, Burt [closed]
WHAT || The Knights infiltrate NOVA to try to locate the experiments and relics mentioned by Chad & company. Shenanigans ensue.
WHERE || NOVA HQ, New Orleans
WHEN || Sunday, Nov 18th, 2012
HOW || Actionspam, don't sweat tag order! Keep it a rollin'.

Months ago, Finnick learned from Burt Becksworth about a number of construction projects Chad had contracted on the building. At the time of discovering the occult room, it was assumed the construction was to create the secret areas behind the auditorium, however, Kat's finally managed to hack into NOVA financial records and trace the contracts down.

It seems there was another, much more expensive, project, adding restructuring to the locked off basement level, to which there is no access through the public elevators. Schematics show that there is one accessible elevator shaft that goes to the lobby, which requires a key to activate the lower floor. Thomas considers it a better bet, however, to use the nearby quarry underground entrance through which construction trucks used to reach the site. Thomas will be leading a team through the underground tunnel in hopes of finding a space large enough to host the 'experiments' that Chad and company were afraid of the Knights discovering while nosing around the building.

Meanwhile, Jack wishes to discover if there are any remaining 'relics' in the building, and if so, to confiscate or document them. The heightened security within the building has made access much more problematic, and its taken awhile for him to acquire the security protocols necessary to be able to create a looped camera feed. Now that's everything's in place, he'll be infiltrating the building to override the cams, allowing Buffy, Elena, and Rafael to join him on the fourteenth floor for one last sweep of the occult room.

The situation has also grown more complicated in other ways since eavesdropping on Chad's cabal. In a gutsy move, Burt Becksworth has created an inescapable situation for Rafael and Finnick, forcing them to comply in preparing for an album and tour, lest they destroy their own reputations and become infamous in the business for backing out of their 'contracts' and letting down legion of NOVA fans. Finnick is an ideal situation to try and discover more about Burt's plans, however, and perhaps to find out incidental information concerning Chad's "Back the Fans" tour.

Comments

[rationalizes]

Getting in is likely to be the easy part.

[ spike opens the door into a small white room that contains hazmart suits hanging on one wall. there's a heavy door leading onward with numerous warnings slapped on it, of potential dangerous chemicals, etc, beyond ]

[nothingsodivine]

Aww look. They left us gifts. [Des wanders over to the hazmat suits.] This oughta buy us some time before they realize they've got five extra employees on site.

[shootfirst]

Not exactly maneuverable. If we get in a shoot out, I'm totally taking my chances with radiation poisoning. [ still, she'll take one down and step on into it, as gar and thomas do the same ]

[bigbad]

I don't think vampires can get radiation poisoning. [But he can't deny the intelligence of the disguise, though he'll be with Kat in ditching the outfits if he has to. He pulls on his suit.]

[bancroft]

Somehow I don't think it will be that dangerous, if the scientists are actually working on anything down here. It's most likely a precautionary measure in case something goes terribly awry. [ still, he'll plonk the hood on, and then head to the door. ] Shall we? [ he pushes it open and they find themselves in a large laboratory, with only a few lights on here and there, illuminating cases that line the walls. tables are located up and down the center, full of equipment and computers. the cases are each filled with a strange blue cloudy liquid through which there are barely some figures visible, suspended ]

[nothingsodivine]

[Des whistles the Twilight Zone theme under his breath once they're inside and he's walking through the room.] Anyone feeling the need to do the Monster Mash about now.

[shootfirst]

[ kat walks slowly forward, turning in a small circle ] Feeling the need to bust some heads, personally. [ she moves to a bank of computers, and her fingers start flying, keys clacking [nat 20 computer use = MAD HAXXOR skills ] Hold on, there's controls to clear the haze. [ bubbles appear in the cases as small fans whir on, and the mist starts to clear enough that the figures are entirely visible.

and horrific. it's clear that they were once human, but they all resemble corpses, whose features seem to have melted in on themselves. eyes run into noses and mouths, stretched and warped. their bodies are distended and bloated, with various strange bulges here and there from their naked forms. weird clumps of tissue are suspended floating around them, as if pieces of them were being sloughed off periodically.

kat's eyes are still glued to the monitor, however, and as she types, disgust grows in her eyes over what she's reading. ] Oh my fucking god.

[bigbad]

[Spike doesn't gasp or throw up or look away or anything. He's a bloody vampire, and he's sure he's seen worse, even if he can't remember it happening. He does grimace, though, examining the horrible figures much more closely than he has any desire to look.]

If there were any questions about whether these are the bad guys....

[rationalizes]

[ gar just crit failed, however, worst scientist ever. she rips off her helmet and bends over a trash can. it doesn't all make it inside :| ]

[bancroft]

[ even thomas presses his eyes shut tightly and looks away for a moment, shaking his head. then he points to kat ] See how much data you can download. [ LISTEN CHECKS YO ]

[nothingsodivine]

[Apparently, Des can eat human flesh, but this is too much for him. He just shakes his head and moves somewhere away from the horrible abominations of grossness.

also nat 20 listen check. AW YEAH.]

[bigbad]

[Listen check 18 which is low for Spike apparently he's too busy being disgusted to have his vampire hearing on full.]

[shootfirst]

All of it, probably. You guys, this has to do with that chip in that displacer beast's neck at the museum. They're trying to get it to work on higher functioning Shadowkind but...

[ she shakes her head in disgust, looking askance at gar, who gestures that she's okay ] It looks like they can only get it to work on humans. So to try to make the whole mind control thing work on their Shadow subjects, they're putting human body parts in them to see which ones have an effect. And these things? [ she nods up at the gross decaying corpses ] Were human corpses. They were working on ways to reanimate just parts of the tissue so that they didn't have to use live human subjects anymore.

[ both des and spike would catch the sound, and thomas' head snaps up too: a steady drip, drip, drip noise. des can instantly tell exactly where it's coming from: the back of the big tank against the wall ]

[nothingsodivine]

Speaking of fishy... [Des moves towards the dripping tank.] Take a look at this.

[bancroft]

[ as des watches, a crack begins spider webbing up from the bottom of the glass. CRACK. CRACK CRACK. CRACK.

thomas comes over to look and his eyes widen. ] Might want to back up, my dears.

[bigbad]

[Oh good, maybe they'll be able to fight something now. That's better than having his old nagging doubts about what if his weird headaches are an experiment. Fighting, at least, he can do. He steps back a bit, tense and ready to hit something.]

[bancroft]

[ and just like that, the glass bulges for a second, and then splits open, pieces shattering off and flying at anyone standing within 10 feet of the case (reflex save of 15 or higher to avoid damage, otherwise 3 dmg from glass). thomas gets nicked right in the face by a shard, even as he tries to draw back in time.

♬ Cold - Static-X

meanwhile, the liquid rushes out, and several bodies wash out with it, while others slump to the bottom of the tank. pieces of corpse debris slosh up against the heroes' feet.

and most disturbingly of all... after a moment, the bodies began to writhe on the ground and emit strange horrific moans. one wet hand slaps the floor, and begins to push itself up. ]

[bigbad]

[...yeah, Spike's ditching the suit. He can't really fight anything while he's struggling out of the outfit, but at least he'll be free to move again.]

[nothingsodivine]

[Des has fucking animal grace, because he got a nat 20 on that reflex save. He ducks and rolls out of the way and starts tearing his way out of the suit to get to his gun.] If I didn't know any better, I'd call this a set-up.

1/SEVERAL EXCITING TAGS

[shootfirst]

Just keep them offa me so I can finish this upload! [ kat looks over her shoulder, as her fingers continue to fly over the keys. ]

2/-

[bancroft]

[ thomas shoves off his suit as well, because... he's got a fucking sword okay, it's not doing much good under there. ] Nothing we can't handle.

3/3

[rationalizes]

[ whatever, gar's already got her hood off, so she just unzips the top of hers and yanks her gun out. because THAT SHIT COULD BE TOXIC U DON'T KNOW. omg guys, osha's gonna be all over the knights' ass for dis mission.

anyways here is a handy dandy map of where people at. the red dots are ZOMBEHS. and the three that have poured out of the case are all heading towards thomas because he's right there, man. they stagger to their feet, dripping goo and ... flesh. two of them try to lunge at him and he manages to step back and away even as he kicks off the suit, but he nearly backs right into the third, who slams into him (5 dmg) ]

[bigbad]

[Now free of the hazmat suit, Spike comes up behind the closest zombie and swings a fist at the side of its head (atk 28 dmg 14).]

How long d'you need?

[shootfirst]

I don't know. Thirty seconds? Just take out the zombies!

[nothingsodivine]

[Des grabs his gun and gets to his feet.] I always knew I'd live to see the zombie apocalypse. Didn't think it'd go this way, though.